


A Scandal Of Less Than a Second

by ephe_meral



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Idols, Foul Language, Half-Sibling Incest, M/M, Mentioned Krista Lenz | Historia Reiss, Mentioned Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), anternate universe but oddly canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:26:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29006016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ephe_meral/pseuds/ephe_meral
Summary: Eren and a social platform where people can anonymously express all the hatred against him just don't go so well together, you know? But even if he is made angry or sad, his older brother always succeeds in calming him down-even with nothing but a loving embrace.
Relationships: Armin Arlert & Eren Yeager, Armin Arlert/Annie Leonhart, Eren Yeager/Zeke Yeager
Comments: 10
Kudos: 48





	A Scandal Of Less Than a Second

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All the names of the social media accounts are made up! Any resemblance between the fictional accounts and real accounts is based entirely on a coincidence. This story does not reflect the author's feelings towards certain characters. So just to make sure, I do not hate any of the characters! If any comments were offensive, its purely for the story, not me as the author blowing off some steam hating on characters lol

Eren is angry. 

Now usually that doesn't inform Annie of anything, because she's always known him as being angry, but this time it's of a different kind. He's furious, his eyes are undeniably fixated on his phone like that, scrolling through the sea of comments directed at the new scandal. 

It had been an accident. Armin and she were live-streaming in their living room, checking his fans' comments and sometimes answering questions about their new relationship. 

Sitting at the far back on one arm of the lazy chair, Eren's presence was captured in the camera from time to time. That in itself was not the issue as the fans would go completely wild upon seeing even one glimpse of Eren lasting no more than a second, but the problem was Eren's older brother, Zeke, walking in at an unlucky time. 

He'd walked into the room and strode towards his brother, unaware of the public eye peeping into Armin's living room, and leaned forward to plant a gentle kiss on Eren's lips. Eren had naturally accepted the kiss, though in a flash he was frozen, his eyes as wide and shocked as the other couple's eyes were as they'd been witnessing it too through the camera of Armin's phone.

Panicking, Armin immediately shut off the livestream and rapidly threw his phone on the couch as if he'd become jinxed when holding it even a second longer. 

The blond's panic was mimicked Eren, who'd covered his open mouth with a shaking hand, the look on his horrified. 

The older blond had picked up on the severity of his kiss quickly and stood frozen on the spot, too. 

'It's OK', Armin replied in a hushed manner, his brain racing with explanations and conclusions. 'They probably didn't see it, or they might have thought it was a kiss on the cheek.' 

'Are you sure?' Eren had managed to ask, his shock having transformed into fear. 'This is so bad... and they know you're my brother too!' 

Zeke shot a worried glance at him, then lifted a hand to gently ruffle his hair. 

'Don't worry, Eren, everything'll turn out fine. This can't be that bad.' 

'And the two of you were at the far back. You were out of focus', Annie added, finding herself wanting to help them out of their misery. 

But neither the distance between the brothers and the camera nor the bad quality in which they were captured were able to fool the eyes of the hundreds of fans watching the livestream. 

Within seconds, Armin and Eren were bombarded with various comments on all their social media accounts:

@arlerto_arminnn: 'OMG did they kiss?'

@cries_in_eremin: 'Uhm eww wtf? What did I just witness?'

@miss.toby12: 'lmaooo and Id been saying Eren had to be cancelled months ago but y'all didn't listen 🤡🤡'

@erensloyalhoe: 'I am devastated. I loved him so fucking much. I don't even know what to think, i'm so depressed I'm deleting my account' 

Comments as these have eventually lead to Eren's current mood. Seated on the sofa, his head bent over his phone, eyes glued to the flashy screen with him doing nothing but reading the comments for the past half hour since the incident. 

Eren and Armin's phones have been exploding with fans' outspoken, sometimes insensitive comments non-stop. Zeke had to leave for work, as much as he'd wanted to stay and keep apologising, which leaves a sympathising Annie and Armin dealing with an Eren who's this close to exploding himself. 

'Eren...' the male blond cooes as he reaches out to grab the other's phone-the source of all hate-, 'it's only worse if you keep reading all these comments. It's not good for you, you should stop.' 

Finally, upon seeing Armin's hand softly cover his own, the distressed brunet hands over his phone freely and glances the other way. 

'Yeah, whatever,' he dismisses in a low and cold tone, 'you're right.'

'Let's just do something else,' Annie suggests uneasily. She'd hoped to experience her time with her boyfriend joyously, determined to spend every second with him as he was finally granted a short holiday and had left for home. Having to cope with his moody and irritable best friend, however, was not a part of the poor girl's dream in the slightest. 

'I'm going to lay in the guest room for a while,' Eren monotonously claims before standing up and striding towards his room, knowing Armin's home as good as his own. 

'Yeah, that's fine,' the blond friend responds, his frowning face a clear indicator of how bad he feels for his hurt friend. 

Annie scoots over to Armin as soon as Eren's left the room, looking over at her new boyfriend in concern. 

'...He'll be OK,' she hopes to make his worries disappear, and Armin can only nod in return. 

But he doesn't seem OK. Far from it, actually. The last thing the world wants is a gloomy and doomy Eren, lying in bed lifelessly as his mind keeps replaying the hurtful comments over and over again. He was never really good at overcoming or ignoring mean and insulting comments at either him or his friends, had always felt the hate sting deeply in his heart. He'd found his most effective form of consolation in being locked tightly in his brother's embrace ever since the first time he'd felt Zeke's arms around him. Whenever he could from then onwards, he'd be running towards his chest and curl his body against his, wanting Zeke's warmth to encapsule him and make him feel safe. Wanting his strong embrace to take all his worries away. 

But his big brother's healing presence isn't available now and the sulking male knows he's allowed some tears to drip on Armin's pillow whilst trying to bring his hushed cries to silence. Having finished crying, hating it everytime he does, he feels relieved when his tears have finally stopped pouring out the corner of his eyes. He'd hate himself for letting his bottom lip tremble and having its corners curl into a frown, but he's gone from scared to angry, to miserable and finally to tired. The rollercoaster of emotions have begun to weigh him down, and Eren's eyelids fall until they've completely covered his eyes, allowing him to heal in his dreams. 

It's a few hours later when he wakes up groggily and feels a warm hand gently glide up and down the side of his torso. 

The eyes that are staring back at him would seem stern to others, but Eren notices the gentle- and kindness in them. 

'Zeke,' the brunet lovingly calls his name and his brother leans in to hug him, resting his head against Eren's chest. 

'Hello, my dearest,' comes his muffled response as he appreciates being reunited with his little brother again. He then lifts his head up and smiles at Eren, whose face is unappealing from the angle he sees him since Eren is looking down at him, giving rise to the appearance of a subtle double-chin. 

The older brother sits back up again and by taking both of Eren's hands he urges him to sit up too. 

'Sorry to have woken you up, but it's almost evening and it's dark out already. Let's go home.' 

They tell Armin and Annie their goodbyes as they depart, Eren not having forgotten to fetch his phone from Armin and subsequently leaving their house hand-in-hand. Then entering their cozy home with their fingers intertwined, too. 

Neither of the two men, whilst knowing both of them have become a hot topic now, bring up the incident of this afternoon and continue their day as usual. The younger male tries to bring it up hesitantly however, calling the other's name softly and unsurely once they are sitting opposite each other at dinner, but the elder male hushes his tense lover and winks at him as if to reassure him of everything being alright. They will simply see things through and let their management take care of it, knowing Armin's already been in a discussion with them over the phone.

They eat their spaghetti leisurely, then recline on the sofa as they read through a manga together while voicing the characters' lines out loud before heading upstairs. Zeke feels his heart ache terribly to make Eren feel better since he still feels guilty over the kiss. It was only meant to be an innocent act of love but has now become a threat to his little brother's career and possibly, his future. In short, he feels bad. 

Falling in bed together, the older brother does the least he can do to help relieve Eren off any stress he has left in him. He hugs him. 

The younger sibling wakes up happily the next Saturday morning and turns over to see a sleeping Zeke, his face encapturing a young and relaxed expression. Smitten, Eren decides to lay in bed some more, waking up properly only when Zeke's woken up too. Clawing at his phone on the nightdesk and turning it on, he feels the sudden urge to check for new comments left on the damned social media. In the back of his mind, the smart boy knows it's wise to keep his finger away from the application icon before he ruins his morning, but he's already tapped it before thinking and his screen is opening the app for him. A trending hashtag catches Eren's eye, that already makes him roll his eyes in annoyance: 

#yeagercest. 

'Perfect,' he mumbles in sarcasm. 

He taps on the hashtag to look for any updates and the influx of comments leave him a bitter taste in the back of his throat. 

@skinnydreams: "I'M CACKLING Y DOES EREN HAVE SO MANY ISSUES LOLLL A BITHC IS CANCELLED WE LOVE TO SEE IT #yeagercest"

@attackonmyheartu: "let me just grab some popcorn and see Eren stans try to save him outta this one- ooops" 

@armins.oceaneyes: "I remember when we tried to protect Eren form those accusations that he was dating that Levi dude but looks like Eren is into questionable relationships with way older men anyway. yikes." 

@_ymir_: "INCEST IS WINCEST LETS FUCKING GOOOOO #yeagercest"

@floch.forster: "incest is not fucking wincest #yeagercest"

Though among the many comments which Eren had wished he didn't read, he finds one expressing an attitude entirely different from the rest.

@yeagerxbros: "I knew it was always just him and Zeke <3 I ship them and support them always! #yeagercest"

Surprised and having grown curious, Eren taps on the username to see what else this account has to say. 

@yeagerxbros: "yall srsly need to chill the f out. Eren and Zeke just shared one kiss but everybody's acting like they had some steamy wild ass sex on camera smh"

It brings out a chuckle in Eren, making his eyes sparkle in embarrassment. That's definitely not something we'd show on camera, he thinks while softly shaking his head. 

He then scrolls down to find what other accounts this one interacts with, hoping to see some more content supportive of the two brothers for a change. 

@zekesbuns: "question at Eren: why Zeke?"

Because I fell for him, is the feisty brunet's immediate response. His defensive nature has taken the central stage quickly, but then he notices this account is really a supporter, as seen by its previous comments. Or so it seems, at least:

@zekesbuns: "HISTORIA IS A BEARD: a thread" 

@zekesbuns: "unpopular opinion but I like Zeke more than Eren?? I know we barely see him but idk"

Totally acceptable, Eren thinks whilst smiling lazily. He'd agree with this person, too.

Scrolling on and ending up at other accounts, he finds some people making assumptions about his personal life, his personality and the like. It's intrusive and some fan theories are farfetched, sometimes downright insensitive or ignorant, but some are spot-on. 

@marchingggEren: "and here I was thinking Historia was just a beard to hide eremin but then historian became irrelevant so they brought back Annie again as armin's gf... guess I'm wrong"

@sallymaria: "@marchingggEren that's what I thought! First they tried to make Historia become the centre of attention again by making her pregnant? all of a sudden?? It was so obviously a pr stunt, there's no way Eren would be that careless"

@felici.teaaa: "@sallymaria ok but... it actually made me think Erehisu was real...'

@sallymaria: "@felici.teaaa yeah me too but I looked into it and it seemed fishy. Not too mention I barely found any pics of Eren actually being with Historia?? Like she's pregnant and he never even comes to visit her or what 💀💀💀"

Eren sighs in defeat. He'd been made to date Historia for the eyes of the public to make their general popularity go up, since their previous album sales had dropped considerably. On top of that, Eren was informed his livestreams with his older brother caused suspicion as some fans had daringly asked what his relation to Zeke really was. Some found the smiles and looks he gave at his big brother a little odd, others tried to defend them by saying the Yaegers were naturally affectionate with each other. Having a girlfriend helped hide his relationship with the only blond he actually wanted to be with, even though they'd only started dating in secret after the shiptease between him and Historia had already begun. It put a damper on his mood nevertheless. 

It's putting a damper on his mood now, clearly feeling an aversion to having to do the things he hates. But Zeke stirs in his sleep, then slowly opens his eyes. Catching sight of Eren, he clamps his arm around the younger male's waist en pulls himself closer to cuddle with his favourite person at the beginning of his day. Eren feels himself being overcome with love as he feels Zeke's face resting against his shoulder, and he's released of all the bad feelings he just got lost in. 

'Good morning, honey. What was that', the half-sleepy blond lazily asks as his idol puts his phone away. 

'My fans,' Eren cautiously replies, swallowing painfully, 'they're not being very supportive of us.'

His blond opens both his eyes now, wondering what would be the best way to respond to that. Though before he can say anything, Eren is already smiling gratefully. Turning sideways to dive into his brother's arms and pull him into a hug, Eren happily claims: 

'But there's kind fans out there, too. I hope they all live a long life.'

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this little story I'd written :') It was a fun idea and I hope to read more of other authors' Zekeren content in the future! Yay for Zekeren!


End file.
